From what I'm hearing from coordinators and people inside its not that they can't march. It's that nobody wanted to. They had to be there. So they phoned it in. Malicious compliance.
Like the squeaky tanks. That was a choice made in the motor pool. They could have greased them up and tested to make sure they were smooth. But they made a different call.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but i do find it hard to believe. I think most people that take pride in their jobs won't half ass it.
Soldiers don't take pride in being used as political pawns.
Here is another event they hate doing, yet they seem to know how to march:
Given that Fortunate Son was playing as one of the songs...
Fucking of course it was.
I wouldn't be surprised if they also played Born in the USA and Little Pink Houses to complete the missing the point trifecta.
Or they did it as protest instead of not caring. Some might have cared a lot.
I think it was probably in protest. However they can, I guess.
They deliberately half-assed the parade because they don't like the way Trump treats them. Trump calls them "suckers and losers." He cuts their benefits Why would you show any loyalty (or enthusiasm) to someone who treats you like that?
More Trump quotes: "You fucking generals. Why can't you be more like Hitler's generals?" 2017
On the burial of US Army private Vanessa Guillén: "It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!" December 4, 2020. Trump has denied having made the remark.
"We're not going to support that loser's funeral." August, 2018. Trump has denied having made this remark.
re: John McCain, who was captured and tortured for five years: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you." July 18, 2015.
"But, you know, during the Vietnam War, I got very lucky. I had a very high lottery number." November 9, 1995.
On the 1,800 US Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France during World War I "Suckers." November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.
On US soldiers in World War I "Who were the good guys in this war?" November 11, 2018. Trump denies having asked this question.
"I don't get it. What was in it for them?" November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.
On disabled veterans "Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." September 30, 2019.
"Look, I don't want any wounded guys in the parade. This doesn't look good for me." Summer 2017.
I can understand why someone would ask who the good guys were in WW1.
It's a question that shows a childlike understanding of war in general, but that's how war is often sold. A team sport with body bags.
That said, WW1 is hard to pick a "good" side. It was a mess of a war, but no side was particularly vile when compared to the others...
But for a US president, there's only one valid answer.
A US president can admit that Vietnam was not a shining moment is US history, but the world wars? No.
The band played "Fortunate Son". They all knew exactly what they were doing.
If shit ever does hit the fan full send (I very much doubt it) he doesn't have the army.
I think the way they marched says more about trump than it does their ability to march. I very much doubt they forgot how to do it.
Like riding a bike. Those soldiers were doing their best to sham in plain sight and right in front of that bloated tangerine, I’ve never been so proud of the E-4 mafia in my life.
The way the marines, in particular, marched… no. That was sloppy and looked intentional.
Saw a short video of an ex drill instructor saying your first week in boot besides getting oriented and shit was learning to march. You dont ever forget it. That if it starts getting sloppy, the seargent or whatever starts saying left, right, left to coordinate again. The guy said it was very intentional .
I was only in marching band. 25 years later, I promise I could still do it with zero practice. This was on purpose.
If I could march in a brass band after very limited practice, these guys can. They just didn’t want to.
Yeah! They need to do important stuff!
Like point guns at me while I'm going to the grocery store!
Russians be like "they can't march, maybe they can't even clean a toilet bowl with their fork or fuck and tortue a child, we totally win"
The entire thing screamed humiliation display more than anything else. And the anything else was like a half assed shitty commercial for military equipment. They had actual soldiers playing dress up for no fucking reason while wasting a fuck ton of money the VA could’ve used. Just despicable all around.
Story time, boys and girls.
When I joined the Army and went to basic training, one of the first things they did was show us how to stand at attention, at-ease, right face, left face, and about face. Then they turned the training unit and marched off.
And then stopped and screamed at us for marching like Nazis.
Turns out, you don't see US soldiers marching like that because it's stupid as hell, and you can't do it for twenty miles with a rucksack. The US military for all their many, many faults, is real good at war, and marching like a toy soldier doesn't help you do war.
So we learned how to march like Americans, which is much more casual. The only thing you've gotta do is make sure you match the stride length of the soldier in front of you, but even that is more of a suggestion than a hard rule. We got good, though, because we were assholes.
We would ease out behind someone who was walking somewhere and roughly the same height, and step slightly faster than the person in front of us, until we were close behind them. Then you perform a little skip at the last second to get back to the same stride and close the last few inches. The end result is that your chest is hovering about an inch from their back, your nose is an inch from the back of their head, and your hands are swinging right behind theirs. While walking at full speed.
You haven't had a jump scare until you've marched two blocks, turned your head, and glimpsed someone's face an inch from your own.
At least Trump seemed not to enjoy any of it, so hopefully we can put this whole stupid episode behind us, and move on to the next stupid episode.
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
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